Starting a Franchise, Healthcare Management, and More – Los Angeles News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have come out of Los Angeles business schools this week.
So You Want to Start a Fitness Franchise? – Forbes
Katya Strombland, Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and MBA graduate of USC’s Marshall School of Business, was featured this week in an interview with Forbes. Strombland, who spent ten years working for Avery Office Products after earning her MBA, eventually found a way to combine her passion and profession—opening two Club Pilates franchises in the Los Angeles area.
The Forbes Q+A discusses how Strombland got involved with fitness franchising, and the process of investing, opening and ultimately profiting from the process. She also discusses both the rewards and challenges of franchising, as well as offering advice for those looking to get their foot in the door: “If you have the opportunity to work or volunteer at another franchisee’s location to learn the ropes from within, do it. It’s invaluable experience.”
Read more about Strombland and the process of franchising here.
Healthcare Management Students Extend Cal State LA’s Winning Streak – CBE Newsroom
A team of healthcare management students at the College of Business and Economics California State University, Los Angeles, recently placed among the top three winners at the Western Regional Healthcare Executives College Bowl Case Study Competition. The students faced off against eleven teams from graduate schools across five states to take the honor, working for more than 60 hours in three weeks to prepare.
Several of the participating students are already industry professionals, but nonetheless agreed that the competition will help shape their careers going forward. The challenge, which takes place over two rounds, requires students to develop solutions for a problem currently faced by a regional healthcare facility. Judges at the competition include all practicing C-suit executives from the healthcare management industry.
Find out more about the annual challenge and the healthcare management program at CalState LA here.
LMU Business Incubator Showcase to Spotlight Start-Up Companies – LMU Newsroom
The Loyola Marymount University College of Business Administration recently hosted its annual Business Incubator Showcase. Sponsored by the Fred Kiesner Center for Entrepreneurship, the event allows Loyola students and recent graduates to share their best business ideas with the community, while the incubator provides the necessary workspace and guidance to turn their ideas into reality.
A wide variety of business ideas were featured at the Business Incubator Showcase at the end of April, including Recupera, a meal service company for those with medical considerations, Influencer Line, which designs and markets products for influencers, and Bristl, a toothbrush that uses light therapy and sonic vibrations to boost oral healthcare.
“I am so proud of the men and women who, with the incubator’s help, have built innovative and promising businesses that are positioned for success in the marketplace,” commented Kiesner Center director David Choi.
You can read more about the business incubator here.
Finding the Best Real Estate MBAs in Los Angeles
Over the past few years, MBA programs and courses in real estate have seen continued growth, as both interest and need have become undeniable throughout the country. With property values and real estate often having a tremendous impact on the overall economic health of the nation, educating and placing top talent in this sector can be vital. But how can you turn a valuable MBA into a lucrative career in Los Angeles real estate?
Although a business focus on real estate is nothing new, the idea of MBAs concentrating in the industry as part of their degree has been getting increasingly more popular. It is somewhat difficult to find MBA programs that offer specializations in the field, even though 2017 saw more than $5 billion invested into real estate technology—a massive increase since the Great Recession. Startups like Airbnb and WeWork area also changing the way the real estate industry overlaps with entrepreneurship and technology, making it even more important for a workforce of talented individuals helping to guide the industry going forward.
Los Angeles, long at the center of discussions about urban development and city planning, features some of the country’s most vital real estate business program. Take a look at the three of the best Los Angeles real estate MBA programs below.
Marshall School of Business – USC
USC’s Marshall School of Business allows students in the full-time MBA program specialize their degree in real estate through electives that focus on topics like investment, finance, valuation, law, development, and the economics of real estate markets. This degree will prepare students for a variety of careers in the Los Angeles real estate field, pairing a focus on the unique aspects of the real estate field with the acknowledgement that success in the real estate field relies still relies on fundamentals like management, marketing, strategic planning, and economics.
The USC MBA in real estate is unique in the student’s ability to tailor the curriculum to their own career and educational needs, acknowledging the wide variety of roles within Los Angeles real estate, such as investment and asset management, consulting, valuation, asset management, and more.
Below are just a few Graduate Real Estate courses offered for MBA students at Marshall:
- Mortgage-Backed Securities and Markets. This course, which includes lectures, assignments and a project, looks at residential and commercial mortgages as well as mortgage-backed securities and markets.
- Urban Land Use-Feasibility Studies. This course consists of a team field study analysis of a prospective development site. Students will work together with a client to address issues like design, entity choice, deal structure, land use, economic analysis, and allows teams to interact with industry professionals throughout the process of developing their proposals.
- Real Estate Finance and Investment. This course consists of both cases and lectures, as well as assignments and exams to evaluate student’s understanding of valuation, projects, financing, and investment analysis. Students will also learn to use ARGUS 7.0, one of the top real estate investment software packages used throughout the industry.
Anderson School of Management – UCLA
The real estate MBA focus at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management has consistently been named among the best real estate programs in the country, let alone Los Angeles. The real estate concentration at Anderson trains students to join the industry through a strong education in real estate financing, investing, and entrepreneurial development. The concentration is integrated into the school’s overall MBA program, with the option for many real estate-centered electives, providing both theoretical and practical study in the most important aspects of the industry.
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The Anderson School of Management also recognizes that real estate is not just a matter of business, and encourages MBA students to seek classes in other departments at UCLA, including public policy, urban planning, architecture, engineering, taxation, and law.
Below are some popular electives available to Real Estate MBA students at Anderson:
- Urban Real Estate Financing and Investment. This course helps students to bridge the gap between theory and practice in real estate finance and investment, training students to use finance and economics to uncover insights about real estate markets and investments.
- Entrepreneurial Real Estate Development. This course looks at real estate through the lens of entrepreneurship, helping students identify market opportunity, product definition, and conceptual feasibility through work in an entrepreneurial environment.
- Public Policy Clinic: Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. Acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of this field, this course will provide students with a solid education in the complicated connections between land use control, state and local government law, and environmental quality
The Paul Merage School of Business – University of California, Irvine
At the Merage School of Business‘ Center for Real Estate, students can earn an MBA Certificate in Real Estate and Urban Development, with a curriculum just as dynamic and diverse as the marketplace itself. The MBA certificate presents students with a holistic approach to real estate, using lessons from past trends and cycles within the industry to help students prepare for a career in this often volatile industry.
Students who have at least two years of study in a Merage MBA program are eligible to pursue this certificate after successful completion of certain prerequisites in real estate. After completing these courses, students can choose from a number of electives connected to the certificate, such as:
- Real Estate Capital Markets
- The Real Estate Development Process
- International Real Estate
- Applied Real Estate Security Analysis and Portfolio Management
- Practicum in Mixed-Use Community Development
Kobe Bryant Speaks at USC Marshall, and More – Los Angeles News
Take a look at some of the biggest news stories of the week from our favorite Los Angeles business schools.
Kobe Bryant, at USC Marshall Event, Shares His Grit and Competitive Edge – USC News Room
The Performance Science Institute, a multidisciplinary center at the USC Marshall School of Business, recently hosted five-time-NBA champion, Los Angeles icon, venture capitalist, and recent Academy Award-winner Kobe Bryant, who spoke to a sold out crown at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. Bryant discussed a number of topics, from his early days of playing basketball to the challenges of changing course from basketball to business. Bryant has become a leader and innovator in the field of business in addition to his basketball success. He established a $100 million venture capital fund in 2013 and debuted Granity Studios, a media and animation studio, after his retirement in 2016.
Bryant speaking at USC / Photo via William Vasta
The event also included the awarding of the Jake Olson Vision Awards, a new scholarship established by USC student leader Jake Olson. The scholarship, which was established as an award for students who have had to overcome adversity to join USC, was awarded to Cailin Stroyke and Isiah Dixon at the start of the event.
To read more about Kobe Bryant and his visit to USC Marshall, click here.
The 29 Most Powerful Business Degrees in the World – Business Insider
A new ranking covered by Business Insider names the Anderson School of Management at UCLA among the most powerful business degrees in the world. Along with the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and the Stanford Business School, Anderson is one of three schools from California to make the list.
The ranking was compiled by the education company QS, which compiles a list of top business degrees around the world each year. The ranking takes into consideration factors such as an institution’s reputation among employers and in the academic community, in addition to the number of research citations the school gets in published papers within the fields of business and management. The Anderson School of Management dropped two places this year from 16th to the 18th highest ranked business degree in the world. While the list includes several schools from throughout the United States, top schools from the U.K. and Europe—like the London Business School—as well as top schools from Australia also make the list.
Click here to read more about the most powerful business degrees in the world.
Digital Transformation: At a Crossroads – UCI Paul Merage School of Business Newsroom
The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine recently hosted the annual Road to Reinvention conference at the end of March, hosting a number of top speakers within the industry to share their insights on digital innovation. The event was hosted by the Center of Digital Transformation (CDT) at Merage, with the CDT’s founder—professor of information systems and computer science Vijay Gurbaxani—as the keynote speaker.
“We are at a crossroads,” Gurbaxani said in his opening speech. “Technology is extraordinarily powerful and can lead to fantastic things for society and the economy. But, we have to manage the risks. It is incumbent upon every one of us to lead this change responsibly.”
Read more about the insights shared at the 2018 Road to Reinvention conference here.
An Inside Look at UCLA Anderson Impact Week 2018
Five years ago, UCLA Anderson students, professors, and alumni first got together for a week-long conference about creating positive social change. Now, Impact Week is an annual event that features talks and workshops from some of the world’s leading business experts examining what the future will hold, particularly as it relates to having a positive impact.
The goal of the Impact Week conference is to help attendees rethink the role of social impact—it’s not just for non-profit organizations. Instead, attendees will be introduced to many different ways that for-profit businesses can make an impact across industries. To make this possible, the event brings in many top business leaders with experience all over the board. Some of this year’s speaker’s include:
- Cara Chacon, VP of social & environmental responsibility at Patagonia
- Chuck Lee, director of insights at Buzzfeed Entertainment Group
- Darya Allen-Attar, financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
- Les Borsai, founder and CEO of Gridmob
- Jennifer Vaden Barth, program manager, CS education in media at Google
This year’s conference will start on April 9th and run through April 13, and will feature workshops, panels, screenings, network mixers, receptions, and more. Each event held during the week covers a different topic. Taken together they are intended to provide a full overview of social impact. Topics to be covered include:
- Impact Investing
- How Profit is Possible in the Affordable Housing Space
- Impact in Media and Entertainment
- How to Drive Impact Through Design
- Impact on the Blockchain
- Diversity & Inclusion in Tech
Most days, the conference holds an event over lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 or 1 p.m. The remaining events for each day then typically take place after 5 p.m., so that attendees can join after work. Anyone and everyone is welcome at Impact Week, including MBA students, students from the greater UCLA community, professionals outside of UCLA, and more.
The cost to attend is $20 for the week, plus $5 per event. To learn more about the conference and to purchase your tickets, click here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
LA Small Business Growth, UCLA Time Management Advice, and More
Take a look at some of the top stories coming out of the Los Angeles business schools this week.
The Growing Role of the CIO – Wall Street Journal
Vijay Gurbaxani, professor of business and computer science at the the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, recently sat down with Ben Fried, CIO at Google Inc., and the Wall Street Journal for a conversation on the changing role of the CIO in today’s companies. The conversation was led by Nikki Waller, WSJ bureau chief.
Gurbaxani discussed changing technology and its impact on business, particularly the importance of cultivating talent in machine learning. For companies to stay current and competitive, he says, they must perfect the art of gathering data and putting it to good use.
“If you fall behind your competitors in developing this new know-how and leveraging, you’re going to fall further and further behind,” Gurbaxani said. “So my message to you would be get out there in a hurry.”
To read more excerpts from the interview, click here.
Study: L.A.’s Small Businesses Optimistic About Growth – Los Angeles Business Journal
A recent survey, conducted by 1st Century Bank in a partnership with Beacon Economics, has showed positive signs for LA small business growth, which is projected to continue through the end of the summer.
The study, which surveyed 150 small businesses in 30 core industries, reported a number of findings that offer hope and a positive outlook for small business owners in Los Angeles. About 78 percent of businesses reported that they expected to see an increase in market demand, while 54 percent witnessed an increase in profit margins over the past six months. Nearly 56 percent of the businesses reported a boost in sales during that same period, and over 70 percent expected to see further increase during the next six months.
More than 70 percent of small business owners in LA are expecting even more growth within the next six month.
According to Beacon Economics research director Adam Fowler, small businesses are a crucial part of the Los Angeles economy and throughout the nation.
“If we don’t understand small-business sentiment,” he comments, “we can’t know the direction this important sector will be heading in … nor can we improve conditions for their success.”
Click here to learn more about the LA small business growth research and look at the complete report here.
Time Management for Startups: Entrepreneurs Act as if Future Hours Aren’t Worth Much – UCLA Anderson Review
While larger companies have become increasingly aware about the importance of time management in a hyper efficient work environment, the same may not be true for entrepreneurs. Upstarts in the business world are as notorious for breaking certain conventions as they are for cutting their teeth, putting in triple-digit hour work weeks to build companies from scratch. And the reason being, says UCLA Anderson‘s Charles J. Corbett, is that there isn’t enough research quite yet.
“I realized there wasn’t much out there,” Corbett said in a UCLA Anderson Review interview. “A lot of the issues that entrepreneurs face don’t come up in our core management studies.”
Alongside fellow UCLA Anderson and INSEAD professor Guillaume Roels, and University College London’s Onesun Steve Yoo, Corbett found that entrepreneurs have to think of time management in the terms of their future, rather than today. And the trick is to understand “net present value (NPV).”
“But, according to Corbett, Roels and Yoo, people, including entrepreneurs, aren’t very good at thinking about their time in the same way. When people think about the value of their time, they tend to think about its current value, today, and not the future ramifications of having that time today. Correctly anticipating those dynamics, ‘NPV thinking’ is particularly important for entrepreneurs with the ambition to grow their business.”
You can read more from the trio’s time management research here.
USC or UCLA? Which Business School Is Right For You?
If you are in the midst of choosing your perfect MBA program, it’s likely you’ve already considered factors like cost, location, and prestige. But even within each of these categories it can be difficult to narrow down your selection to just one perfect school. Some of the nation’s top MBA programs can be found just within California, considered one of the best states for higher education. Today, our School v. School comparison will take a look at two of these top California programs: UCLA Anderson and USC Marshall.
